View report page

During the war period the number of births increased by 12.8 per
cent., but owing to the considerable decline of population, the average
birth-rate showed a rise of no less than 21 per cent. A considerable
increase in the ratio of male to female births is a phenomenon that
has often been noticed during wars and has never been explained.
The great increase in illegitimate births, on the other hand, is easily
understandable.
Among causes of death, the great increase of deaths from cerebral
hæmorrhage and heart disease respectively, during the war period,
reflects the peculiar strains of that trying time. Similarly, the abnormal
rise in the number of deaths reported from bronchitis was
probably a direct consequence of "shelter life" upon old people. Apart
from pneumonia, which showed a moderate increase, deaths from
infectious diseases generally showed little change, except for influenza
and tuberculosis, which fell considerably. Notifications of new cases of
tuberculosis, on the other hand, showed an increase of 26.5 per cent.
Notifications for scarlet fever were fewer than before the war, and
those for diphtheria showed a 57 per cent. decline, reflecting probably
the results of the recent campaign for immunisation.
Turning to the year 1945, it may be noted that the upward trend
in the birth-rate first noted in 1942 continued, and as a result the
number of births recorded reached a total of 505, giving a birth-rate
of 18.1 per 1,000 of the population, a figure considerably higher than
that of 16.1 for the country as a whole. On the other hand, the deathrate
of: 11.0 per 1,000, although comparing favourably with that of the
whole country and most other towns, has not yet fallen to its exceedingly
favourable pre-war level, which was often below 10 per 1,000 of
the population. Last year I commented on the particularly healthy
conditions for child life in the Borough and noted the very low average
infant death-rate, and the exceptionally few deaths from diarrhoea
and enteritis among children under 2 years of age. In 1945 there
were no deaths from these causes and the infant death-rate of only
21 per 1,000 births is far below that of most other towns and the
country as a whole, which stood' at 46. Infectious disease, with the
exception of measles, which led to 256 notifications in the year, showed
a very low incidence, but there were 4 cases of poliomyelitis and 1 of
polio-encephalitis during the year, and the latter unfortunately proved
fatal.
The recovery of the cases of poliomyelitis speaks well for the
exceptional care and attention they received in the Wandle Valley
Hospital.
During recent years attention has been called in certain areas to
the fact that schools often appear to be concerned in the spread of
scarlet fever and other infections. This has prompted me to investigate
the age incidence of whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever and
diphtheria respectively as shown by the record of notifications in the
Borough during a number of past years. Some of the results are
tabulated below: —
8